Pirate Party falling out of favor across Germany

According to a new article in Germany’s main news magazine, Der Spiegel, the German Pirate Party has been rapidly losing support across the country. The organization can thank mismanagement, disorganization, and poor public relations.

They currently do not hold any seats in the German federal parliament, but do hold some seats in a number of state legislative bodies. That includes seats, most notably, in the Berlin state parliament and in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany’s most populous state).

Once the darling of German politics, the same magazine reported in April that the Pirate Party had pushed away some of the country’s top intellectual class. Earlier this month, Pirate parties across Europe were forbidden from sitting in on sessions of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Most notably, the country’s political director, Johannes Ponader, caused controversy amongst the German public when he recently went on TV and explained his polyamorous lifestyle. In addition, he’s been lambasted for repeatedly living on unemployment, and has asked party supports to donate money for his salary (as he currently receives no money for his party involvement). Other party leaders have tried to keep Ponader out of the limelight and have told him to refrain from media interviews (which, clearly, he has ignored).

“The newcomers are gaining a reputation as a party of self-promoters, whose members most often garner big headlines for bizarre behavior—for example, one representative in North Rhine-Westphalia uses Twitter to describe her one-night stands and broken condoms,” the magazine reported.

On the legislative side, German Pirates haven’t managed to do much. The restaurant inside the Saarland state parliament building apparently now serves Orangina at the party’s request. In Berlin, the party became “the first to introduce live-streaming of their parliamentary group’s sessions.” Meanwhile, they’ve also protested the use of Google spam filters for parliamentarians in North Rhine-Westphalia, among other things.

“Sometimes the Pirates come across more like corporate consultants brought in to help a company get rid of outdated traditions,” the magazine concluded.